Apple Rejects 'Sunshine Shareholders'

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Watching the Apple (AAPL) shareholder meeting with a stock ticker at my side was like watching an EKG of a dying man.

The run-up was filled with hope that "this operation," a proposed cash-ectomy being engineered by David Einhorn, or something like it, might save the patient from its slow and steady decline.

In the early minutes of the meeting the stock actually gained $7 per share, or $6 billion.

Then CEO Tim Cook began speaking and later took questions. By the time he finished the stock was down $9 per share from that peak, a loss of $8 billion. Mr. Cook sure is Mr. Excitement!

Seriously, Cook's message is that he doesn't care what stock pickers think about Apple's policies, regarding its cash or anything else. The man is not for turning. He has his sights set on the long term, with Apple building its new "spaceship" campus by 2016, all the parking underground so it will look more like Alan Harrington's "Crystal Palace" than an office building.

As to products, and strategies, shareholders will learn about them when everyone else does. Apple will move when it moves, do what it does and if you don't like it, sell.

For people who bought anywhere near the stock's $700 peak, it was a cold slap in the face. Apple will make that investment good on Apple's timeframe, not yours, Cook was saying. Apple will disgorge its $137 billion in cash how it chooses to, not how you want it to. You, Cook was saying, are not the boss of me.

With most companies the answers would be satisfactory. But that fall, whatever caused it, represents a loss to shareholders of nearly $200 billion. No one has ever shrugged off $200 billion before. Even Congress might call that real money.

It's like the whole episode is a test, and Cook the professor. Are you a trader or an investor? Do you get into a stock to make a quick buck, or because you believe in the company you're buying for the long haul? If it's the former, go away. If it's the latter, patience.

1 2 Next › Last »